Harley Davidson Inc. 2008
The founder of this company is William Harley and his friend Arthur R. Davidson. James Ziemer is the President and the CEO of the Harley Davidson company. The mission of the company is “We fulfill dreams through the experience of motorcycling by providing to motorcyclist and to the general public an expanding line of motorcycles, branded products and services in selected market segments. The issued that Harley Davidson must face are, considering the weak dollar, the probability that retail sales would continue a downward spiral, which in turn would cause excess inventory of high priced motorcycles. Then, there was the customer base; the rockers who grew up in the sixties and seventies are graying and this threatens the growth of Harley Davidson. Like other growing company, a sale of Harley Davidson is strong but the profits were weak. In 1996, the company announced its strategic decision to discontinue the operations of the Transportation Vehicles segments in order to concentrate its financial and human resources on its core motorcycles business. In 1997, Harley Davidson creates an internal makeover and introduces new products to increase their profits and market share. The heavyweight motorcycle market is highly competitive. Major competitors are based outside the United States and generally have more financial and marketing resources. Competition based on the price, quality, reliability, styling, product features, customer’s preference and warranties. Harley Davidson designed it manufacturing process to increase capacity, improve product quality, reduce costs and can increase flexibility to respond to the market change. The US economy would stifle growth for Harley Davidson. Since Harley went public, it shares have risen over 23,000% but however it declined in 2007. It means, economy condition is one of the major threats for motorcycles